St Petersberg

Wow, there are a lot of tourists here in St Petersberg, and a lot of them Russian. Its definitely a city with lots of tourist drawcards - famous museums (Hermitage), cathedrals, canals, and palaces and huge historic centre which has been largely restored and maintained. After world war 2, and the German seige where over a third of the population were killed, and many of the buildings damaged its really quite amazing things have been rebuild and the historic 1800s style maintained.

Too much to see and with only two full days I've barely scratched the surface taking a tour and walking round and visiting a few places. Fancy a city where different sides of the streets have separate names and numbers (cos they were intended to be canals with two sides, but were later filled in to make streets)

Top of my list has to be the mosiac filled church (Church of the Saviour on spilt blood), and Peterhof's Palace Garden and fountains. The Gardens fountains are the real drawcard, while the over the top guilded decoration of the palace inside is definitely worth checking out. I was befriended there by an interesting American (yes they do exist believe it or not), and enjoyed the luxury of listening to his personal guide and being chaffeured back to town!

And St Petersberg has some cool cafes, with great food. Had to have beef stroganoff in a city where there is a Stroganoff palace! And talking about food and famous names, I've had the building where Anna Pavlova lived pointed out. Also tried the dumplings, and pickled herring and potatoe salad - yum. Mind you I think leaving Russia it might be nice not to have food garnished with dill for a change! Nearly everything comes with sourcream and dill.

Hey and did you know Putin is a St Petersberg boy, and ex-KGB?